The Mayor of LA has issued a curfew tonight — not because the citizens are out of control BUT BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT IS.
— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger.bsky.social) June 10, 2025 at 7:28 PM
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The are line dancing in the middle of the protest while shouting Fuck ICE
— Tina-Desiree Berg (@tinadesireeberg.com) June 8, 2025 at 5:26 PM
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This is my California! ✊ We will not be intimidated or silenced by the military might being used against us. #FreedomToDissent
— Rogue Citizen One (@roguecitizenone.bsky.social) June 9, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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I don’t know if this is Wyatt Russell or not, but everyone—from celebrities to politicians—should follow his lead. He stood in LA & told the military the truth: they’re on the wrong side of history. You weren’t sworn to serve a wannabe dictator. You swore to defend the Constitution & we the people.
— Jennifer ✨Get In Good Trouble (@thejenniwren.teamlh.social) June 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM
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You're a Bunch of Cowards!
We're all laughing at you.
... if you are looking for negative role models for masculine virtue, there is an easy way to find them. They are employed by ICE. They are employed by the Department of Homeland Security. They are employed by the sprawling and unaccountable security state, and right now, they are out on the streets of our cities, snatching up mothers and infiltrating elementary schools...
...On one side of these protests you have women and children and grandmothers and teenagers and a skater kid who becomes a national icon by dancing around while you shoot at his feet. On the other side we have you and all your colleagues dressed up like a bunch of ridiculous fucking paramilitaries, as if you’re at war in Iraq instead of on a street in the middle of LA, shooting rubber bullets at people because they don’t want their neighbors deported, and because they believe in the First Amendment, and because, somewhere along the line, you made a bad choice in your life, and bought into the idea that this sort of thing makes you strong, badass, admirable, instead of admitting that it demonstrates to everyone with eyes that you are ignorant, weak, and cowardly. Too cowardly to say no when a bad person who doesn’t care about you asks to do evil things on their behalf. Real sad.
Twitchy, puffed up, goofy ass cops. No amount of guns and steroids and tear gas will ever make you cool. Fuck off, losers.
Chicago says "shame on you"The protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies that started in Los Angeles have spread to at least two dozen cities, including San Francisco, Dallas, Austin and New York City. Follow live updates. https://trib.al/1pq2QEZ
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) June 10, 2025 at 8:45 AM
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Some retired generals are speaking out:The NYT is working to sanewash this dark and bonkers Trump speech
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 10, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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Damn @POTUS Speech At #FortBragg was inappropriate, criticizing previous administration, and Generals while speaking to troops , I never witnessed that S..t like this in 37 years in Uniform .
— Russel L. Honore' (@ltgrusselhonore) June 10, 2025
I saw Hertling today on MSNBC - here is another comment of his:“Young soldiers make mistakes. But if senior officers remain silent, what lesson will those young men and women take from what happened?” says @radiofreetom.bsky.social. I’m embarrassed by those troops & their leaders, and they all ought review the army’s rules. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
— Mark Hertling (@markhertling.bsky.social) June 10, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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A useful discussion here too - its the whole Nichols column because I couldn't leave anything out:Reinforcing my friend @radiofreetom.bsky.social. We’re required to refused to obey illegal orders. The military is trained on that, starting in basic. It’s also unfair to National Guard and active Marines to even put them in that circumstance against fellow citizens if not a true emergency.
— Mark Hertling (@markhertling.bsky.social) June 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
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The Silence of the GeneralsTrump is deteriorating, isn't he?
As President Donald Trump crossed a dangerous line at Fort Bragg, the brass failed to speak out in the Army’s defense.
President Donald Trump continued his war against America’s most cherished military traditions today when he delivered a speech at Fort Bragg. It is too much to call it a “speech”; it was, instead, a ramble, full of grievance and anger, just like his many political-rally performances. He took the stage to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”—which has become a MAGA anthem—and then pointed to the “fake news,” encouraging military personnel to jeer at the press.
He mocked former President Joe Biden and attacked various other political rivals. He elicited cheers from the crowd by announcing that he would rename U.S. bases (or re-rename them) after Confederate traitors. He repeated his hallucinatory narrative about the invasion of America by foreign criminals and lunatics. He referred to 2024 as the “election of a president who loves you,” to a scatter of cheers and applause. And then he attacked the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles, again presiding over jeers at elected officials of the United States.
He led soldiers, in other words, in a display of unseemly behavior that ran contrary to everything the founder of the U.S. Army, George Washington, strove to imbue in the American armed forces.
The president also encouraged a violation of regulations. Trump, himself a convicted felon, doesn’t care about rules and laws, but active-duty military members are not allowed to attend political rallies in uniform. They are not allowed to express partisan views while on duty, or to show disrespect for American elected officials. Trump may not know these rules and regulations, but the officers who lead these men and women know them well. It is part of their oath, their credo, and their identity as officers to remain apart from such displays. Young soldiers will make mistakes. But if senior officers remain silent, what lesson will those young men and women take from what happened today?
The president cares nothing for the military, for its history, or for the men and women who serve the United States. They are, like everything else around him, only raw material: They either feed his narcissism, or they are useless. Those who love him, he claims as “his” military. But those who have laid down their life for their country are, as he so repugnantly put it, just suckers and losers, anonymous saps lying under cold headstones in places such as Arlington National Cemetery that clearly make Trump uncomfortable. Today, he showed that he has no compunction about turning every American soldier into a hooting partisan.
Trump’s supporters and his party will excuse his behavior at Fort Bragg the way they always have, the same way that indulgent parents shrug helplessly at their delinquent children. But senior officers of the United States military have an obligation to speak up and be leaders. Where is the Army chief of staff, General Randy George? Will he speak truth to the commander in chief and put a stop to the assault on the integrity of his troops? Where is the commander of the airborne troops, Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson, or even Colonel Chad Mixon, the base commander?
And if these men cannot muster the courage to defend American traditions—by speaking out or even resigning—where are the other senior officers who must uphold the values that have made America’s armed forces among the most effective and politically stable militaries in the world? Where is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine? He was personally selected by Trump to be America’s most senior military officer. Will he tell the man who promoted him that what he did today was obscene?
Will any of these men say one word? Will any of them defend the Army and the other services from a would-be caudillo, a man who would probably be strutting around in a giant hat and a golden shoulder braid if he could get away with it? The top officers of the U.S. military wear eagles or stars on their shoulders that give them great privilege, as befits people who assume responsibility for the defense of the nation and the welfare of their troops. They command the power of life and death itself on the field of battle. But those ranks also carry immense responsibility. If they are truly Washington’s heirs, they should speak up—now—and stand with the first commander in chief against the rogue 47th.
As I put this post together, I recalled an exchange I had in the comment section of this blog, way back in 2004, with a father whose son might have to fight in Iraq. The father said that Americans don't always know if a war is right, but part of being an American military family is that they have to believe their Commander-in-Chief and the military leadership wouldn't send their boys into harms way unless the fight was important and justified.Your periodic reminder: he is getting steadily worse. Every day, he does something more outrageous, more insane than the last. Think how much worse he has become in the last six months. Now project that trend six months into the future. We are headed for the abyss. https://t.co/3CUo11jG8t
— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇬🇪🇲🇩 (@acoyne) June 11, 2025
I had never thought of it that way before, that to be a soldier required such trust in the military leadership.
And tonight I wonder what he would say now, if his grandson or granddaughter was sent to Los Angeles on Donald Trump's orders.
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